Worthy

Reviewed by: Noelle Gallant - Saco Middle School, Saco, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 9, 2018

Review

https://youtu.be/g5Jg4G1gOWk

_Worthy_ will be a popular book for my eighth grade readers because it explores a high school setting rich with social media influence and ripe with relationships, friendships, family issues, and prom.

As an adult reader, I found the motif of worthiness troubling. In _Worthy_, a student named Linden and her classmates discover a high-school specific app that posts pictures of a couple at the school and allows users to rate the worthiness of a girl in the relationship. The idea that the girls are being rated and the boys are not is troublesome, let alone the idea that the app itself promotes such harsh judgment of others. The author hints that adults are clued in to the trouble (bullying, judgment) Worthy app is presenting to its student body, but no adults seem to take action here and the issue isn't addressed.

I found the characters to be too flat for such a troubling topic, particular the characters closest to the protagonist. Her boyfriend Alex and her best friend Nikki should be more fleshed out.

Overall Book Score: good